Jean-Baptiste Bernadet Vetiver (Shanghai)

Almine Rech Shanghai is pleased to present Vetiver (Shanghai), Jean-Baptiste Bernadet's eighth solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from January 15 to March 7, 2026.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadet’s paintings are often discussed in phenomenological terms, particularly through an equivalence with clouds. Like clouds, they sustain an equivocal relationship to abstraction, representation, and interiority. Blending the remnants of late-modernism with a tinge of Baroque theatricality, while feeding a postmodernist sensibility with the pixelated residues of Impressionism, his paintings appear as compound aggregates. The subtle balance of Bernadet’s all-over compositions rests on unresolved tensions with every part equal, yet equally distinct.

In Vetiver (Shanghai), the painter’s cloud-like formations take on a newly latent form akin to colored fumes. Diffused patches of pyrotechnic yellows burst through the canvas like smoke flowers in the midst of an auspicious firework. In the meantime, darker shades of blue, purple, orange, and green linger, as if searching for a place to settle. From one canvas to the next, this series of Vetiver carries the observer through vaporous movements like successive stages of an endless process of evaporation. What lies behind Bernadet’s artificial sfumato remains unclear, hidden behind an evanescent curtain of smoke that gets in your eyes—the kind of haze that makes lovers go blind.

— Emile Rubino

阿尔敏·莱希 - 上海荣幸呈现让-巴蒂斯特·贝尔纳代于画廊的第八次个展「香根草（上海）」，于2026年1月15日开幕，并将展至3月7日。

让-巴蒂斯特·贝尔纳代的绘画常被置于现象学语境中讨论，尤以“云朵”作为类比。正如云朵般，其创作在抽象、再现与内心性之间保持着一种微妙而暧昧的关系。在他的作品中，晚期现代主义的余音与略带巴洛克戏剧性的情感交织，而印象派的碎片化余痕又为其注入了后现代式的敏锐，使这些绘画呈现出复杂而层叠的视觉效果。其画面没有固定的中心，而是以微妙的平衡铺展开来，每一部分既平等又彼此分明。这种平衡恰恰建立在持续未被化解的张力之上。

在展览「香根草（上海）」中，贝尔纳代笔下的云状形态像烟雾般柔和、流动。散射开的亮黄色如烟花般绽放，而蓝、紫、橙、绿等更深的色调则在画面中游移，仿佛在寻找落脚之处。整个系列的作品像一连串不断蒸发的过程，引导观者随着画面的流动而移动，仿佛经历着连续且无尽的转化。至于贝尔纳代以渐隐法（sfumato)营造出的那层朦胧背后究竟是什么仍不得而知，被一层稍纵即逝的烟雾遮蔽——那是一种足以让情人看不清彼此的迷离雾幕。

文/Emile Rubino